Scottish Socialist Voice
Issue 301
22nd March 2007
—front page—
Bombs away!
For a Nuclear-free
Do you like bombs? We don’t.
We think they’re a bit dangerous and that it’s really a bit
irresponsible and not at all nice of Tony Blair to force wee
Jack McConnell, who doesn’t know any better frankly, to agree
to have 48 of them here in
And at a cost of £76billion
too.
That’s all Jack’s dinner money from here to
eternity, assuming we’re not blown to eternity, that is.
Talking of dinner money, it seems a bit off that, in the week
that Scottish MSPs refused to vote through a proposal to provide
free, nutritious school meals for all state school children
in Scotland, at a cost of less than £100million, the big lads
in London were voting through the proposal to replace Trident,
for the aforementioned £76billion, when the old one goes to
the knackers in 2020.
We can’t expect Jack to do much about it.
He’s only doing what he’s telt and he’d really quite like it
if we’d do what he’s telt too - that is, stop shouting and roaring
about independence and get on with our work, at call centres
and suchlike, for the minimum wage minus transport costs.
Indeed, if we don’t do what we’re told, all sorts of terrible
things might happen, like border guards patrolling the
But we suspect this comes from the ‘the ice-cream van only chimes
when it’s run out of ice-cream’ school of reasoning.
We know better, even if wee Jack doesn’t.
If we gain independence, we’d be the ones deciding whether the
And whether four monstrous nuclear submarines continue to berth
in the
We in the SSP are fully aware that independence doesn’t automatically
mean a socialist republic complete with neighbourhood participatory
budgets and free and fully integrated public transport.
If it was, it seems a tad unlikely that multi-millionaire and
celebrity homophobe Brian Souter would be donating one gzillionth
of his phantasmagoric fortune to the SNP.
Not that the SNP are exactly full-blooded in their call for
a referendum; they seem intent only on proving how ‘grown up’
they are, through dressing up in smart suits and talking about
business a lot.
But independence will give us greater control over our destiny
- over taxation, foreign policy, defence, you name it.
We could say “bombs away!” and away they’d go, leaving us lots
of lovely money to fritter away on hospitals, schools, housing
and buses.
And they call us irresponsible?!
—page two—
MSPs deny kids free meals
Last Wednesday, MSPs voted overwhelmingly
to ban junk food from schools and introduce basic nutritional standards.
However, they failed to endorse the policy of universal, free provision
of nutritious school lunches, even though all the available evidence
shows that this is what it takes to maximise and maintain uptake.
It has worked in
And it worked in Hull too, where the council introduced the policy
to combat the city’s dismal health record, and saw uptake shoot
up to the high 90s, most notably in the poorest schools, by the
very children the policy was designed to reach.
But oh no, the clots that brought us the Healthy Eating Helpline
knew better, and kicked the SSP amendment, spoken to passionately
and persuasively by Frances Curran MSP, into touch.
Clearly, the Labour faithful had made up their minds before they
even entered the chamber - which they did, pretty much, only just
in time to vote. On that day, politicians could dine at the subsidised
Sodexho parliament canteen on such appetising and wholesome fare
as vegetable, bean and chickpea balti with boiled rice, and grilled
gammon steak with a ginger and peach chutney. There was also a deli
special, today’s chef’s salad, soup of the day and a three-way choice
on desserts too.
In a parallel universe - that is, a Scottish state-run school -
students had a rather smaller choice: macaroni cheese or...a cheeseburger.
This stark societal divide serves as an appropriate backdrop to
a new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR),
which warns that the number of disabled children in the
Why? Because of poverty, poor diet, obesity and increases in the
pre-term survival rate.
The IPPR recognises a ‘two-way relationship’ between poverty and
disability, in that one causes the other causes the other. Disability,
in our society, too often means poor health, poverty, social exclusion
and narrow life chances.
Such a shocking escalation in health problems cannot be addressed
through piecemeal policy tweaks, banning the odd cola machine and
putting up posters about apples.
We need a major public health intervention, such as the introduction
of free, nutritious school meals, to give our young people a fighting
chance in life.
Banning junk food from school canteens is well and good but it barely
scratches the surface and
Hopeless on homelessness
by Keith Baldassara
The Scottish Executive, and the families
who find themselves homeless, are reaping the whirlwind of a failed
housing policy that has seen housing haemorrhage from the public
sector through right-to-buy and demolition, without being replaced
in anything like adequate numbers.
Now the Executive says that, by 2012, all those who present themselves
as homeless will get equal status, replacing the Priority Status
referral system.
If this policy were in place today, it would pitch local authorities
into serious crisis as current resources are simply inadequate.
This is directly attributable to the lack of affordable public sector
housing.
Those who find themselves homeless are predominately from broken
homes, fleeing violence or repossession, or facing eviction from
private sector accommodation because benefits cannot meet the asking
rent.
On top of the lack of public sector housing is a lack of house types
suitable for families. In
There is also the problem of location. Families, particularly those
fleeing violence, need accommodation in a neighbourhood where they
feel safe. Shockingly, this isn’t always available. Other issues
include the upwardly spiralling rents in the private sector, which
are not covered by housing benefit, and a lack of disabled access.
In 2005/06, some 57,000 applications for re-housing were received
by local authorities in
The Executive claims that, in 2007/08, they will invest £1.2billion
in public sector housing.
But in fact, only a quarter of this - £386.8million - will be spent
on new-build public sector housing, providing only a fraction of
what is so desperately required.
We must build more public sector homes by at least ten thousand
per year.
If not, there is no hope of getting families into decent homes and
out of B&B and temporary accommodation by 2012.
If we continue to lose public sector homes at the rate of 12,000
a year through right-to-buy, we could actually end up with a housing
deficit!
In the 21st century, in one of the biggest economies in
Labour councillors in nice little earner
With a month to go before the Holyrood
elections, we already have a couple of winners to announce, in the
shape of George Black and Tom Aitchison.
Neither are parliamentary
candidates - Black is the Chief Executive of Glasgow Council and Aitchison is his
But they’re winners in the financial stakes, as Black is being paid
over £28,000, and Aitchison over £20,000,
for one night’s work on 3 May.
They are both Returning Officers for their respective cities - that
means they read out the results - and that’s not a bad wadge of
cash for announcing a few names, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Black’s not the only one doing no’ bad out of the election - 24
Labour councillors are receiving £420,000 in severance payments
in
Good to see how Labour-run councils spend all that money they save
through decimating local services.
They won’t let their pals go short. You can trust Labour on that.
—page three—
Reforms defy doctors’ orders
by Jo Harvie
Highlighting their fear that their profession
is being thrown into chaos, hundreds of young doctors, their families
and supporters rallied in
They say reforms under the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) programme
are cutting jobs, jeopardising the quality of patient care and placing
medics in the impossible situation of having to choose between their career
and their family.
MMC changes how training grade doctors get work, which will see them specialising
earlier in their careers and, with Scotland designated as one region,
will have doctors sent to work in any part of the country with little
choice other than to leave their profession if moving from Dingwall to
Dumfries doesn’t suit.
MMC has been created by the Department of Health in
Kevin Cormack, of grassroots doctors’ campaigning organisation Remedy
UK called the computerised applications system “a Kafkaesque nightmare”,
followed by interviews designed by “politicians and psychologists” rather
than those best placed to recruit - medics themselves.
“Patient care is suffering,” he said.
“Doctors are stressed and taking time off.”
An estimated 8-12,000 training grade doctors in the
Dr Hamish McKay, an anaesthetics SHO at Stobhill hospital, told the Voice
that was in part a by-product of changes to the way consultants will work
in the future. Those changes in themselves, he believes, are not a bad
thing:
“But they’re trying to introduce it far too quickly, and the disparity
is going to show up when all the junior doctors disappear. This is poorly
thought out and rushed through to suit a political agenda.”
A statement from SSP MSP Carolyn Leckie was read out to applause at the
rally. In it, the former NHS worker leant her support to Remedy
The statement continued:
“This is another example of NHS cuts being dressed up as ‘reforms’ and
we’re now in the situation of 30,000 junior doctors across
And those who get jobs don’t know where they may end up: “This fiasco
may result in doctors leaving medicine or emigrating.”
Dr Silva recently got a registrar post at a GP practice in
“It has to be more flexible,” she told the Voice. “They seem not to have
noticed that
She also feels that early specialisation will curb doctors’ general experience.
“It’s not going to be as broad, and that’s got to hurt patient care.”
Equality issues are also causing concern.
With women now in a slight majority amongst newly qualified doctors, a
profession long since dominated by men, MMC’s complete lack of flexibility
in approach could hurt women, who are least likely to be able to move
for family reasons, hardest.
The most impassioned speech on Saturday’s rally came from Sheila Cormack,
whose partner Kevin had opened the rally.
“Family is being put last,” she said. “Trainee doctors already have to
sacrifice lots of their family life and their free time for medicine.
“Now, we have no idea where we’re going to be in August. [If he gets]
a year long post, then we have to move again. If you say, ‘Sorry, no,
I can’t take that job’, then you’re out of work for a year.
“Doctors are having to choose between the career they’ve been training
hard for, or their families, and it’s an impossible to choice to ask them
to make.”
A tale of two Perthshires
by Richie Venton
It was a weekend of strange but revealing
contrasts.
As I left the lashing rain of
Yep, the man who made a fortune out of bus de-regulation, rail privatisation,
and cut-throat business practices.
The purpose of my journey was to speak at the
The RMT membership straddles rail, bus, ferry and maritime occupations.
They have members on the buses where Souter’s Stagecoach is the
Stagecoach has cornered 16 per cent of the
On the railways it has 11 per cent of the market, plus a further 14 per
cent through their 49 per cent ownership of Virgin Trains.
In the past, Souter’s Stagecoach has threatened use of scabs against striking
bus drivers.
In carving out their market shares they are notorious for temporarily
undercutting rivals, then jacking up fares after driving other companies
to the wall.
In
The Monopolies and Mergers Commission described Souter’s actions as “Predatory,
deplorable and against the public interest.”
Following an introduction to the SSP’s policy for free publicly-owned
transport with the Perth RMT, a rich, well-informed, healthy debate amongst
these railworkers ensued.
These workers included signallers who have just been forced to strike
to enforce an agreement signed by Network Rail bosses last June, after
negotiations that began in 2001!
They were extremely appreciative of the role the SSP played in supporting
their successful strike - whilst they faced condemnation from Labour,
and yes, you’ve guessed it, the Souter National Party.
The RMT meeting included maintenance workers who got a bonus last year
of just £1000 for working in the pissing rain in the middle of the night,
whilst Network Rail bosses got bonuses of 50 times that.
Also present was a station worker who was seeking the union’s help in
fighting a boss who tried to impose a roster whereby he has to work literally
every Sunday of the year!
A world away from the lives and interests of the Souters of Perth.
Though I warned them that we couldn’t offer peerages in kind, the branch
decided unanimously to give a hefty proportion of their funds to the SSP’s
election appeal, to help distribute SSP election bulletins, and to hold
a joint RMT/SSP public meeting in Perth to promote our candidates.
And two more branch activists signed up as individual members of the SSP.
Give me that any day of the week, compared to the SNP’s friends and fortunes.
Save Meadowbank!
by Linda Sommerville
The Save Meadowbank Campaign drew over
600 protesters to a public meeting last Saturday to hear Councillor Donald
Anderson say the decision to demolish Meadowbank was ‘still open’ to debate.
Previously
The Stadium was home to the Commonwealth Games of 1970 and 1986 and is
still used as a training ground for athletes and as a local sports centre
for users from Edinburgh and
The Council plans to build houses on the Meadowbank site, and a small
community sports facility.
New sports facilities will be built at Sighthill using the money raised
from the sale, but this is miles out of many people’s reach.
Plus, the ear-marked area in Sighthill currently hosts football pitches
and is one of the only green spaces left in the west of the city. The
money will also be used to refurbish the Royal Commonwealth Pool in time
for
The funding package has been imposed by the unelected quango Sportscotland.
Colin Fox MSP demanded investment in our sports facilities, saying, “Don’t
let them tell you there is no money around to refurbish Meadowbank when
there is £20billion for Trident.”
Meadowbank currently offers a huge array of sports and leisure activities
to young people, as well as a youth club. One young boy challenged the
councillors, asking them:
“Where will I go - ’cos I don’t have anywhere to go?”
The campaign’s petition has over 5000 signatures, including The Proclaimers,
and will be handed into the council after a march from Meadowbank to the
City Chambers on 30 March at 5pm.
—page four—
Filling in the facts on Fluoride
The toxic by-product of heavy industry that ends up in our mouths
by Roz Paterson
Andy Kerr, the minister so clueless
about health he thinks PFI is good for us, has raised the ugly
spectre of fluoridation of
Pumping a chemical - in fact, a by-product of heavy industry which
is so toxic you have to pay a lot of money to dispose of it -
into our water supply, so we have to drink it whether we like
it or not, is necessary to tackle
The problem is, of course, that filling us up with fluoride is
a serious infringement of our civil liberties, especially as Kerr
is doubtless less than keen on opening the matter up to serious
democratic debate.
In this country, human health is seen as the prerogative of elite
professionals, and ordinary folk are expected to do as they’re
told.
And if that gets right under your skin, then read on...
Fluoridation of the water supply, which runs to over 60 per cent
of the public water supply in the US, has been linked, in extensive
and concurring studies, with lower IQ in children, bone cancer,
osteoporosis, thyroid problems, Alzheimer’s and other dementias,
and a whole ream of nasty allergic reactions, from headaches to
gastroenteritis to abscesses and sores.
Dr William Marcus, formerly the chief toxicologist at the Environmental
Protection Agency in the
Incidentally, Marcus was fired from his post at the EPA in 1991,
for demanding an unbiased evaluation of fluoride’s cancer potential.
He won his case in court, however, when he was able to demonstrate
that his dismissal was borne entirely of politics.
But what this story tells us is that the
A 1999 study by Dr Hans Moolenburgh,
found that 4 per cent of people using fluoridated water reported
severe adverse reactions, including gastric and skin problems,
cancers and neurological disorders.
Studies dating back to the 1950s find that women giving birth
to Down’s Syndrome babies are younger
in areas of fluoridated water.
The safe fluoride benchmark was established in the 1940s, at 1ppm
- or 1mg per litre. But that was assuming that water was your
only source. In fact, we ingest fluoride through toothpaste and
products like mouthwashes, processed foods, soft drinks and even
fresh produce, which can absorb fluoride from certain fertilisers.
The average American ingests 8mg of fluoride a day, which is way
above recommended levels, and may go some way to explaining the
escalating incidence of dental fluorosis
- the mottling of teeth caused by excessive fluoride intake -
and other conditions, such as hypothyroidism, which appears to
be rampantly on the increase in the
As if adding an industrial pollutant to the water wasn’t bad enough,
the form it takes may be even worse than at first appears.
Most fluoride is added as sodium fluoride. That’s not great, but
it’s better than the cheaper chemical compounds which are sometimes
used instead, such as silicofluoride,
hydrofluosilicic acid and sodium silicofluoride.
A 1999 study, involving 280,000 children across
The presence of aluminium in water is another hazard. Aluminium
is used as a clarifying agent and is not readily absorbed by the
body.
Add fluoride, however, and you get aluminium fluoride, which is
readily absorbed, and which has been found to cause severe kidney
damage and brain lesions similar to those found in sufferers of
Alzheimer’s.
Rats force-fed this stuff developed short-term memory loss and
other dementia symptoms.
While the American government may be happy with fluoridated water,
American citizens increasingly are not.
Across the states, and more so as the years go by, cities and
states are either refusing to sign up to fluoridation or reversing
a previous decision and having the fluoride removed.
If you’re still worried about your teeth, chew on this: the most
cited pro-fluoride overview is the York Report, 2000, which sifted
through 214 studies on fluoridated water.
It came out, narrowly, in favour, but concluded that research
to date was really too poor to make a decent judgement. And that’s
the best one going.
Other research finds, for instance, that incidence of tooth decay
is reducing in the
A better diet, with minimal refined sugar and plenty of calcium,
and better access to affordable dentistry, including the reintroduction
of school dentists, would surely be a better means of tackling
our dismal dental record?
Andy Kerr may hope to sweep fluoridation in without anyone noticing,
but SSP MSP Rosie Kane did notice, and lodged a motion on 13 March,
noting the potential health hazards and that “not enough is known
about the dangers of the cumulative effects of fluoride on the
individual”.
Further noting that “the claimed benefits in relation to preventing
tooth decay may be outweighed by the documented negative side-effects
of water fluoridation”, she calls for parliament “to oppose any
future legislation to introduce mass medication through
Fluoridated water is a form of forced medication and will, if
the mounting anti-fluoride data is even half-right, give us little to smile about.
—page five—
letters
Out on the election trail
As the election draws nearer I thought it might be a good idea
to let folk know the type of feedback Frances, Carolyn, Colin and myself
are getting on our travels. I have attended a couple of hustings already
and have plenty more in the diary. The good news is that despite the
difficulties the SSP have endured, through no fault of our own, we have
been extremely well received. I represented the SSP at a hustings in
the Women’s Library in
At the end I got the chance to chat to many of the women and they were
very supportive of the SSP. The Women’s Library is currently assisting
women to register for the vote and even producing mock ballot papers
and ballot boxes to help familiarise women with the process - many of
those women will vote SSP.
I also attended a hustings organised by Holyrood magazine in
On Thursday of last week,
Yes, we have a lot ahead of us as we enter into the election campaign
- the tenement stairs, the biting dogs and the media attacks - but comrades,
we are doing well. The SSP are well known and respected for all the
right reasons, so let’s get into this campaign not only with comfy shoes
and first aid kits (for those stairs, dogs and sharp letter boxes) but
also with heads held high and principles intact.
Rosie Kane, Glasgow
Holyrude
Interesting, certainly! But extremely frustrating and bitterly
disappointing in the way it operated.
That was my lasting impression of Scottish Parliamentary procedures
after witnessing the debate last Wednesday morning on the Schools (Health
Promotion and Nutrition) (
Even more disconcerting, however, was the fact that many of them absented
themselves from the chamber during these speeches, but returned, sheep-like,
to record their pre-determined votes on the sound of the division bell.
It was so obvious that minds had been made up well in advance that it
was possible to predict with considerable accuracy, the number of votes
cast on the various amendments. To vote against the amendment arguing
the case for universal provision of free school meals in Scottish primary
schools, without even bothering to listen to the spirited, passionate
and very sincere speeches by Frances Curran and Rosemary Byrne was,
in my opinion, the very negation of democracy.
As a local authority councillor of some 17 years, this sort of behaviour
- and indeed the quality of many of the speeches - fell far short of
anything I have seen and heard in the council chamber. It would indeed
be a salutary lesson for some of the worst behaved members of the Scottish
Parliament if they were to attend a full council meeting - if only to
see how a debate should be conducted.
Of course the amendments put forward by the SSP and the SNP fell. A
splendid opportunity to make a strong and positive move towards eliminating
some of the worst aspects of poverty in both the rural and urban areas
of
The amendments, had they been successful, would inevitably have led
to a significant improvement in the health of Scottish children and
the illnesses associated with obesity in adults for generations to come.
This would, in turn, have led to a significant improvement in both behaviour
and academic performance of many children in the classroom.
So much for democracy! I know that there is a time and a place for the
parliamentary whip to be exercised, but on an issue as fundamental as
this for the health and well-being of the people of
No doubt the debate will be re-run in a future Scottish Parliament.
The growing support for universal free school meals will almost certainly
ensure that this happens. The work of pressure groups such as the FSM
Campaign Group has already wrung concessions from the Scottish Executive
by extending the range of pupils entitled to free school meals and will
no doubt continue to do so.
The speed, however, at which the ultimate goal can be attained will
depend on the number of socialist and nationalist MSPs that are returned
on May 3.
Cllr
Cruden
Sexist society
Having recently served as a high court juror on a violent rape
case, I think Louise Robertson’s campaign deserves full backing. (See
Voice Mail, issue 300, ‘Supermarket swipe’.)
When the jury retired to consider our verdict I fully expected we would
find the accused guilty, given the serious injuries the woman sustained
and the accused admitting that at no time did he hear the woman say
yes.
Unfortunately comments I heard from fellow jurors were “What did she
expect”, “She is doing it for compensation money”, “The wounds were
self-inflicted”, “She shouldn’t have accepted so many drinks from him”.
Surprisingly these comments came from women jurors. Unsurprisingly a
caveman juror said, “She should be in the dock.”
The accused was found not guilty by a two thirds majority. I felt anger
and despair but can only guess how the victim was feeling.
We socialists must not underestimate the mammoth task of convincing
many men and many women that rape is always wrong and sexual equality
is a good thing.
Roman Pankiw,
SEEKING REFUGE
by Donnie Nicolson
Terror squad back in action
It had stopped for four months but last
week it started again in earnest. Yes, the reviled Dawn Raids, which
earn the government so much bad press, and cause terror among
Out of the blue, the Home Office Heroic Armoured Child Snatcher Squad
aka the Dawn Raid Unit flew into action at 7am on Monday morning, crashing
through the front door of a Congolese family in Cardonald, Glasgow.
The father, mother and three children are now in Dungavel detention
centre, waiting to be returned to the world’s worst war zone.
But why the extended purge on the
We were reminded this week of the tragic desperation of ‘failed asylum
seekers’. The Nepalese man who set himself on fire in the Immigration
court died in hospital. Uddhav Bhandari, a 40-year old father of two
from
Any suggestion that the Home Office are bad sports is being denied by
John Reid, who’s on a mission to re-style himself as the Mr Nice Guy
of New Labour.
Writing in this week’s Sunday Mail, Reid ‘hit back’ at columnist Elaine
C Smith who dared to suggest that the Home Secretary’s now infamous
‘Alf Garnett’ outburst was a tad beyond the pale.
“I am not a racist,” says Reid. He backs up this outlandish statement
by reminding readers that his grandmother and his wife were immigrants
to the
John Reid take note: we don’t care if you married a Brazilian woman.
Your personal beliefs are not under scrutiny here; your political actions
are.
John goes on to say “The action we are taking is not about targeting
‘foreigners’ as some have crudely accused me of”. This statement is
incredible. Whom did he say, while on live TV, that the Home Office
would be targeting? That’s right; “foreigners”!
Reid’s tub-thumping rant, which uses the phrase “cracking down” twice
and talks of “tough action” three times, ends with this ominous sentiment:
“In the past we have not been tough enough in enforcing the rules. This
is changing and I won’t apologise for that.”
Not tough enough yet? Be very afraid.
Morag Balfour will return after the election
—centre pages—
Independent thinking
The Scottish Socialist Party is
the only party going into the May election explicitly committed
to a referendum on Scottish independence within one year - one
of our six key pledges.
The SSP is striving to create an independent nuclear-free, multicultural,
Scottish socialist republic.
That is a long term goal. In the short term, we can take a mighty
leap forward towards that goal by breaking free of the suffocating
stranglehold of the British state.
The SSP has never hidden its socialist politics. We are a working
class party that stands up for ordinary people against big business
and the rich. Our flag is deepest red.
But we work with other parties on the immediate objective of independence.
The SSP was the first party in Scotland to sign up to the cross-party
Independence Convention, which now draws together the SSP, the
SNP, the Greens and a range of individuals.
We also back the non-party Independence First campaign, launched
in 2005 to fight for an independence referendum.
In 300 years the people of
Whatever the balance of forces after May 2007, the SSP will build
cross-party support for a referendum bill within one year.
The Act of Union was a travesty from the moment it was signed
- a stitch-up between the ruling classes of two nations, designed
to further their own agenda and to hell with the people.
The intervening 300 years have witnessed no significant redress
of this democratic deficit.
Scottish troops are still used as the British state’s cannon fodder.
Scottish culture and history are still largely suppressed in our
schools.
Scottish votes and voices continue to be drowned out, unheard.
The
There is no doubting that many Scots on the make have benefited
from the
The SSP has been at the forefront of the call for independence,
as a major democratic advance, a means by which, at last, we can
decide who, if at all, we go to war with, how we treat our workers,
how we run our welfare state and organise our energy resources.
The SSP believes that independence is an idea whose time is coming
and that the 2007 elections will see a further surge in support
for pro-independence parties.
The SSP will work with others, including the cross-party Independence
Convention and the non-party Independence First campaign to bring
about an independence referendum in the shortest timescale possible
after the May 2007 elections.
If necessary, the SSP will itself introduce a bill to hold an
independence referendum within the first year of the new parliament.
Even the Blair government, which was lukewarm about devolution,
managed to call a referendum on establishing a Scottish Parliament
and a Welsh Assembly within six months of coming to power in 1997.
We challenge the pro-Union parties to explain why, if they are
so confident that they represent the majority of the Scottish
people, they continue to deny the Scottish people the right of
self-determination in a democratic referendum.
The bulwark of today’s British state is not the Tory Party, who
have long since been kicked into touch in
But the more ludicrous their arguments, the more surely we all
know they’re losing.
They are on the run, and the SNP are the pretenders to their throne.
The SSP opposes the SNP’s increasingly pro-business vision of
an independent
The SSP is fighting for a different
Nor do we subscribe to the bizarre idea that the Queen should
remain the Head of State in an independent
Our call is for a Scottish socialist republic, in which the people
are sovereign, not some dim descendant of the house of Saxe-Coburg,
and not the multinationals who like to squat on our shores till
the government subsidies run out.
We seek to throw out the weapons of mass destruction that lurk
on the
We will welcome people fleeing oppression, war and poverty, and
offer them full rights and a place in our society.
We will cherish our civil liberties, not straitjacket them with
ID cards and Criminal Justice legislation. We will live in real
hope, not manufactured fear.
We will look after our workers, repealing Thatcher’s anti-trade
union laws and delivering a fair minimum wage for all, including
those under 21.
We have a powerful vision of the nation we can be, in which everyone
has rights, and democracy is extended and extended, from proportional
representation in all elections to participatory democracy forums
at local level, where neighbourhoods can vote on and veto the
decisions that affect them.
This is our world, and we will fight tirelessly to bring it into
the hands of the people, to bring socialism into being.
We harbour no illusions that independence, in itself, will cause
this transformation. But we believe it can help us on our way,
by delivering massively increased democracy and making the ideas
of socialism - equality, wealth redistribution, peace and human
solidarity - more easily achieved.
Should the referendum on independence be won, and we believe it
will, we will argue for the establishment of a Constitutional
Assembly, independent of political parties, to draw up a brand
new constitution for
This would not be an appointed panel of notables and celebrities
but a democratically elected body, representative of
That Constitutional Assembly would be given the task of drawing
up a constitution based on two essential, abiding principles -
those of maximum democracy (eg no hereditary powers; full proportional
representation; no external military control) and maximum equality
(eg full and equal citizenship for all who live and work in Scotland;
no discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexuality,
age or disability).
British unionists claim that independence only entrenches nationalist
divisions, but we believe it will serve to end petty divisions.
The Labour government’s witless attempt to quantify Britishness,
and to enshrine it in citizenship tests and ID cards, only serves
to emphasise how ill the trappings of the
Through independence, we become ourselves, and enable others to
do likewise.
The 2007 election marks the 300th anniversary of the
Let’s raise the standard of a Scottish socialist republic, for
the people of
Campaign for essential referendum
Eric Canning, the Acting Convenor
of Independence First Strathclyde branch, explains the aims of
this campaigning organisation with an eye to the approaching elections
On 10 March, in
Reports were given, including from the numerous branches which
have been formed across
Independence First has been formed on a non-party political basis
to campaign for a referendum on independence for
The march and rally on 31 March in
Petition
The Scottish Parliament election on Thursday 3 May will
in itself be something of a referendum where many people will
deliberately choose to vote for only those candidates who support
such a determination.
A petition by IF has already been presented to the Scottish Parliament
for such a referendum but has been rejected by the current Lab/Lib
executive - no surprise there!
Edinburgh and Lothians branches are expanding and recently a Strathclyde
branch has been formed to cover
Independence First will continue to campaign right up to the election
on 3 May - for example the Strathclyde branch are organising a
lunchtime fringe meeting at the STUC congress on Tuesday 17 April
in Glasgow - but more importantly to make sure that those parties
committed to a referendum fulfil that pledge in the resulting
new parliament.
Welcome to
the country where families are dragged from their beds
in the darkness of dawn, and dispatched back to torture and murder
on a tax-funded plane. The SSP wants to see a
Scots have always paid
For 300 years, Scottish regiments have been catapulted to the
frontline of
During the days of empire, it was the blood of our working-class
youth that stained the world map pink.
Today, it is the same blood that is being squandered in the fields
of
If nothing else, independence is an escape hatch from this latest
despicable invasion, in which over 650,000 Iraqi civilians have
lost their lives.
An independent
We could also refuse to participate in any military action in
An independent Scotland could also pull the plug on extraordinary
rendition - the US secret flights system that sees terror ‘suspects’
flown to regimes where they can be tortured, for the United States,
without the US having to take any responsibility for it - by withholding
access to our airports and airspace.
Likewise, we can block the transportation of military personnel
and hardware.
Meanwhile, at home, we could rid ourselves at last of the scourge
of nuclear weapons, by uprooting Trident and sending it home.
The billions we would save would be more than adequate to compensate
those who would lose their livelihood through nuclear disarmament.
We would further save money by bringing our military budget into
line with that of the
Over £2billion would be saved, more than enough to bale out defence
workers who would lose their jobs, bring pensions up to a decent,
liveable standard, build tens of thousand of new council homes
and introduce free, fully integrated public transport.
Without weapons and wars, we would be a powerful force to contend
with.
Scottish citizens not British subjects
by Mary McGregor
We believe that everyone in
The existence of the
The SSP is for the abolition of all Crown Powers. These are repressive
powers that, in reality, give control to the ‘hidden state’. It
is for this reason that the struggle for democracy in
Unlike the SNP, the SSP is committed to establishing a socialist
republic, which means the abolition of the monarchy, the Crown
Powers and the House of Lords.
While capitalism depends on the state to control the working class,
socialism is based on the working class controlling the state.
ID cards
The ID cards, proposed by the Labour government, must
be opposed. They are intrusive and expensive - they will protect
us from no-one, particularly not the state, as anything can be
faked.
Genuine democracy means that anyone in a position of power must
be elected, accountable and recallable. This fight for wider democracy
is the key to changing society through mass participation.
In a truly democratic
The scrapping of the Criminal Justice Act would mean people would
have the freedom to demonstrate and young people would be able
to vote at the age of 16.
We believe in a democratic and secular Scottish republic, where
religion is a private matter. There is no place in our
A secular
—page eight—
Campaign for free public transport
Lorna Bett, who is top
of the SSP list for Mid Scotland and Fife in the Scottish
Parliament elections in May, joined activists in Cupar
last Saturday campaigning for free public transport. Lorna
said:
“Our proposal for free public transport can be delivered
for less than a third of
“It is a positive way to tackle global warming and poverty
by rewarding people for doing the right thing, using public
transport. Commuters from Cupar could save thousands of
pounds a year in travel costs under this proposal.”
Lorna also joined in with an
SSP has youth on its side
Socialist candidate
The SSP was campaigning
on Dumfries’ streets last weekend, with activists, including
the SSP’s top two list candidates for the
Aged 18,
In fact, since the age at which candidates are eligible
was only lowered to 18 this year, we believe she’s the
youngest candidate to stand in
That’s something which she finds “quite scary”, she told
the Voice, but it also makes her very proud.
And she, along with the SSP’s other young candidates,
is giving the party a connection with young people that
others won’t have.
“It’s easy to spout rhetoric about young people, about
the problems we face in school or college, in low paid
jobs, in trying to get somewhere to live, but as people
get older we lose touch with how it really feels. So I
think to have someone experiencing all of that just now
is very useful.”
Charlotte grew up in Dumfries and
That’s a problem which will be exacerbated by the proposed
closure of Glasgow Uni’s Crichton campus in
“There will be absolutely no opportunity for higher education
in the area if it goes ahead, people will have to move
away and often they can’t move back.
“Crichton has the highest ratio of disabled students of
any uni in the
Charlotte and the other SSP activists met up with Crichton
campus staff and students to help with their campaign
to save their jobs and courses, and together they leafleted
and gathered signatures at Queen of the South’s game against
That followed an SSP stall in
“Dumfries and Galloway was one of the first places where
council housing stock was transferred to private control,”
“Rents have already gone up since that happened, then
last week DGHP (the organisation which now runs the housing
stock) announced they want to raise rents by 40 per cent.
“Owning a house is impossible for most people, because
prices have been pushed so high
as many are sold off as holiday homes.
“The lack of housing has got so bad that 69 villages in
Dumfries and
It’s an issue that SSP activists will be taking up relentlessly,
along with the lack of local facilities.
“There are too many Tescos and not enough skate parks!
It took ten years of pressure to get a skate park built
in
“They’ve just built a new Tesco, and they’ve permission
for another within 18 months - it looks like it’s easy
to get permission just as long as what you’re building
is to make profit.”
Gie’s oor bus service back
The Renfrewshire Branch
of the Scottish Socialist Party held a protest in Ferguslie
Park Avenue, Paisley, to highlight the atrocious lack of public transport in
Iain Hogg, the SSP candidate for North West Paisley in
the local elections, and also the candidate for the Scottish
Parliamentary elections for Paisley North, said:
“This situation has been going on for far too long. The
people of
“Ferguslie is like a desert for transport at night, and
on a Sunday there are no local buses all day.
“The council has done nothing to put effective pressure
on the bus operators to provide a better all-round service,
and the operators only seem to want to run at the busiest
times.
“One of the reasons we are advocating a free public transport
policy is that there are still areas like
“With traffic congestion and global warming a burning
issue there has never been a more pressing time to promote
public ownership of public transport.”
Branch member Andy Bowden, an activist with Scottish Socialist
Youth and council candidate for Paisley East, added:
“Many jobs in the modern world require mobility and attendance
at odd hours, and if people have to shell out for taxi
fares, then many jobs, especially for young people on
the lower minimum wage, become unfeasible.”
John Miller, SSP candidate for the Paisley South council
seat said:
“A recent protest at the Tannahill Centre has seen a cash
machine installed in the post office by the Bank of Ireland.
“Whilst this is not a perfect solution to the problem
of cash-point facilities, since it will only be available
in Post Office hours, it is a great improvement on what
went before.
“It shows that protest can produce results and that the
activists of the SSP are prepared to take to the streets
to fight for working people.
“We hope that the bus companies will respond positively.”
—page nine—
cultural resistance
Catch a neon fire
Neon Bible by The
by Malcolm McDonald
The new release from the Montreal-based
seven-piece must be one of the most eagerly awaited recordings of
the year. With the arrival of 2004’s Funeral, all manner of rock royalty
(David Bowie included) tripped over each other to claim discovery
of the band’s grand vision captured by that record, with its songs
of sorrow made into joy.
Rather than grossing-out supporting U2 in Megadromes across the
This approach is typical of the band. Neon Bible chimes, bangs, jangles
and roars like nothing else. From the galloping piano of opener Black
Mirror (“mirror mirror on the wall, tell me where the bombs will fall”)
to the closer My Body Is A Cage, The Arcade Fire manage to sing songs
about everything from environmental disaster to the War on Terror
and make them all sound uplifting.
Some of the songs here are anthemic, yes - quite the opposite of a
selling point to this listener - but others are disarmingly direct.
A massive church organ opens Intervention, which gets laid into organised
religion (“working for the church while your family dies”).
The grand and breezy No Cars Go swings in somewhere between mid-’60s
Bacharach, Belle and Sebastian and The Waterboys.
In the relatively downbeat Windowsill, the USA of Homeland Security
alerts gets a pasting (“I don’t want to fight in a holy war/ I don’t
want salesmen knockin’ at my door/ I don’t want to live in America
no more”).
Ocean of
You can’t resist such references, yet comparisons in this case are
unnecessary.
I listened to this and tried to put my finger on what I was hearing.
I was hearing a band near the height of its powers, writing and performing
with a self-assurance that makes each song sparkle and glow.
For those who stumbled upon Funeral and couldn’t stop listening to
it, be prepared to repeat the experience.
The long road to freedom
Bill Scott takes a look at the origins and influence of Burns’ radical classic, Scots Wha Hae
It’s not Wallace or Bruce who is the
true hero of Scots Wha Hae, much though Burns admired their struggle
for Scottish freedom. Burns wrote this poem during a time of great
hope and great repression. The French Revolution and Tom Paine’s Rights
of Man inspired Thomas Muir to found the Friends of the People in
1792 to campaign for greater democracy. After its first convention
he travelled to
In 1793, on his return to
Forbidden from paying open tribute to Muir, Burns went home and composed
a poem “about another man who paid dearly for standing up to tyranny”.
Read in this light the lines of the poem take on new significance
- “Noo’s the day and noo’s the hour” means that the time for struggle
against the state’s repression (“Chains and slaverie”) is not in some
romantic past but right now.
Nor is Burns being a simple patriot when he asks “Wha’ for
What was at stake was not only the Scottish people’s own freedom but
that of their children and Burns’ sentiments are the same as those
of La Passionara during the Spanish Civil War - “It is better to die
on your feet than to live on your knees”. Or as he put it “We shall
drain our dearest veins/But they shall be free”.
Fearful for his own freedom after Muir’s conviction and transportation
to
The tyrants of Scots Wha Hae are not Edward but the government of
Burns’ own day - busy taking away hard won rights to protect their
own power. The poem therefore could not be more relevant today. As
in Burns’ time people are being arrested and transported in chains
to places far from any hope of aid from friends and family. Botany
Bay or
Saturday 31 March sees the Independence First march and rally. Will
you march not only for
Tuned in
Keef Tomkinson
Square-eyed socialist Keef recommends next week’s TV
Sunday 25 March
Ms Dynamite in Search of Nanny Maroon,
BBC2, 8pm
Niomi Daley (that’s Ms Dynamite) has been fascinated by stories of
Nanny of the Maroons, a Jamaican woman who successfully led a revolt
by slaves against the British Army. Dynamite sets out to discover
why, 250 years on, Nanny remains such an inspirational figure in
Schindler’s List, ITV3, 10pm
Spielberg’s contribution to remembering the horror of the holocaust
stuns the senses. Full of humanity yet frank in its depiction of the
Nazis’ slaughter of
Monday 26 March
The
A wee look at how funeral services have moved from kiddie-fiddler
ministers mumbling over gothic organ hymns to celebrations of life
with John Lennon on vibes. Personally I want Boards Of Canada - Dayvan
Cowboy‚ and Johnny Cash - These Are My People‚ at mine.
Wednesday 28 March
Luke Mitchell: The Devil’s Own? BBC2,
10.40pm
I don’t know if Luke Mitchell murdered Jodi Jones. But what I do know
is that the hysteria created by the prosecution and media cast doubts
over the verdict. It seemed Mitchell’s musical taste, not the actual
evidence, was being examined. If his appeal is successful it will
cast a shadow on the legal system and leave a family without justice.
Thursday 29 March
Eye of the Needle, Film4, 6.50pm
What’s the best kind of Nazi except for a dead one? Yes, a foiled
one. Donald Sutherland is the evil Nazi spy trying to scupper the
F*** Off I’m A Hairy Woman, BBC3, 9pm
Since this is on the BBC’s entertainment channel I doubt this will
be a sensitive look at women and body hair and more like a Channel
Five show called How Low Will It Grow? Anyhoo, comic Shazia Mirza
grows her hair for six months to see if she can live with it.
Storyville: Screamers, BBC4, 10.30pm
This sounds absolutely interesting. It chronicles American band, System
of a Down, and their mission to raise awareness of the 1915 Armenian
genocide by
—page ten—
international news
Darfur’s dark descent
“Killings of civilians
remains widespread, including
in large-scale attacks. Rape and sexual violence are widespread
and systematic. Torture continues.”
So says a report, prepared for the UN Human Rights Commissioner
(UNHCR) by a high-level mission to
The report tells us nothing we don’t already know. In
This mass murder is being conducted “in a climate of impunity”.
The Khartoum government is not standing by impassively;
it is actively “orchestrat(ing) and participat(ing) in
these crimes” and obstructing all efforts by the African
Union, the UN and NGOs to try to stem the tide of abuse
which, it seems clear, now amounts to genocide, the victims
being almost entirely black, ethnic Africans and the aim,
equally clearly, to wipe them from the face of Darfur.
The report is strongly worded, yet is unlikely to be enough
to move the UNHCR, where attempts to investigate the situation
in Darfur have already been blocked by allies and clients
of the Sudan government, notably China, which has become
Sudan’s new best friend thanks to Darfur’s oil, for which
it has secured exploration rights. Not from the people
of Darfur, but over their heads from the
The ‘scorched earth’ policy pursued by government-sponsored
militias - aka the Janjaweed, often literally backed up
by Sudanese troops, blazing guns and helicopters - becomes
explicable in this light.
Rounding up women and girls from a village and raping
them in front of their brothers and fathers, before murdering
them all is, undeniably, a very effective means of depopulating
a land.
Those who aren’t cut down already will run for their lives.
Living a half-life in a Chad refugee camp, teeming with
disease and dying children, is better than being decapitated
or burnt alive in front of your family, if only marginally.
To ensure no-one returns, the villages and fields are
burnt to ashes.
While foreign intervention is hardly a favourable solution,
the situation in
Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) leader Abdelwahid al-Nur
welcomed the UN report but said its charges against Darfurian
rebel forces - whom the report
said were “guilty of serious abuses of human rights” -
were false.
How could it be otherwise, he said, when the SLM were
calling for UN intervention, and were doing so much to
help internally displaced people, including facilitating
aid for them?
Khartoum has characterised the conflict as a fight between
ethnic Africans and Muslim Arabs, and been quick to play
the ‘we are Hezbollah’ card, attempting to align itself,
in the eyes of the world media, with anti-imperialistic
organisations in order to gain credibility for what is,
in truth, just a dirty rout in the name of money.
Underlining this truth is the fact that many Arab tribes
have refused Khartoum’s ‘enticements’ - arms, land, threats
- to fight their ‘cause’, and instead joined forces with
their ethnic brothers. Literally their brothers, in many cases.
Arabs and Africans have lived side by side here
for generations, strengthening their ties through marriage.
Blood here has proved thicker than water and, indeed,
oil.
But they are paying a terrible price, losing their homes
and security as
—page eleven—
international news
Disappeared but not forgotten
by Patrick O’Hare in
In March 1975, a military coup installed
a brutal eight-year dictatorship in
Backed by the CIA, the regime was renowned for its appalling human
rights record, as political opponents were tortured, raped and killed
at over 500 secret concentration camps set up across the country.
When
Only months after the 30th anniversary of the coup, in 2005, a key
witness in the trial of former police officer and torturer Miguel
Etchecolatz was kidnapped.
The witness, Julio Lopez - now an elderly man in his seventies -
is still missing and his disappearance serves as a reminder that
the dark days of repression are not over.
At the forefront of the campaign to find Lopez are the courageous
human rights group, the Madres De Plaza de Mayo.
Back in 1977, when the military was busily destroying any opposition
and stifling free speech, the Madres were one of the few groups
who dared to raise their voices.
At first a loose grouping of mothers whose children had been abducted
by the military, the Madres used to gather in Plaza de Mayo or in
nearby churches and hold a silent vigil, carrying pictures of their
missing loved ones.
Each week, as the repression and kidnappings increased, more mothers
made their way to the plaza, identifying each other only by their
white headscarves - often the nappies of their missing children
- which became the symbol of the Association.
Today, the Madres still converge on the Plaza every Thursday, not
only to remember their sons and daughters, but also raising the
flag for justice and equality, for the same ideals that their murdered
children fought for 30 years ago.
“Our children left us a path”, Juanita told me, when I visited the
bookshop-cafe that the Madres run in
Once a busy housewife without time for politics, Juanita become
aware of the brutal practices of the dictatorship when her own son
became one of the thousands to ‘disappear’.
Now 93, she still works in the Madres’ cafe every day, studying,
writing and giving interviews.
She described how the Madres, by tackling the problems that society
faces today, are keeping alive the dream of a fairer society which
many of her son’s generation gave their lives for.
They have opened a university, giving poorer students access to
education, and recently became involved in a project building decent
housing for the millions living in
In a building project partly funded by the government, in Villa
Oculta, residents who were previously unemployed and living in ‘ranchos’
made of paper or cardboard are now building their new homes, simultaneously
earning a diploma in construction.
Surprisingly, given
The Madres have good relations with the current government of Nestor
Kirchner, the first to recognise that the 30,000 victims of the
dictatorship were in fact excecuted, and not killed in combat, as
previous governments tried to claim.
Yet when I visited their weekly march, leader Hebe De Bonafini underlined
the differences the group still have with the left-leaning Argentine
President.
“We will never accept reconciliation because reconciliation always
goes hand in hand with forgiveness,” she explained. “And we will
never forgive those officers who tortured, raped and threw our children,
still alive, into the sea.”
The Madres motto is “We will not forget, we will not forgive, and
we will not negotiate,” Juanita later told me.
By negotiate, the Madres mean that they will not accept any compensation
for the loss of their children; a controversial principle which
eventually led to a split in the Madres organisation.
“We won’t accept money for the blood of our children. Nor do we
want exhumations. Our children were alive when they disappeared
and it is alive that we want them returned to us.”
Thus, often painfully, the mothers have refused to participate in
identifying remains or having the bodies of the disparecidos returned
to them.
“We know that our children are not dead,” explained Juanita. “They
are living in the struggle. A part of them lives in every young
revolutionary who takes up the struggle anew. They march beside
us every Thursday in Plaza Mayo.”
Understandably, the Madres are scathing of those who kept quiet
or left the country during the dictatorship.
“There were many who quietly left the country whilst our sons and
daughters were being tortured in concentration camps. They grew
fat, got rich and now they come back to the country.
“Quite frankly I find that shameful.”
Juanita continued, saying that during the World Cup in 1980, many
people were carried away by a nationalist fervour. Yet this was
also a time when the military stepped up repressive measures and
kidnappings.
The Madres were again one of the few groups who continued protesting,
marching, campaigning, alerting the international media (who were
there for the football), that outside the stadiums a more horrific
story was being covered up - that of los desparecidos.
Up until 2005, a ‘law of due obedience’ meant that all officers
outside the generals who headed the military junta were immune from
prosecution, and since then there have been very few offenders brought
to justice.
“There are still many fascists in
Right-wing elements in the
City governor Jorge Sola recently admitted that there are still
around 50 officers in the force who also served under the dictatorship.
In the face of such threats and challenges, Juanita sees the role
of the Madres as important as ever.
“We must educate the young people of today so that what happened
to our children will never happen again,” she urges.
That said, it seems clear that the Madres have both feet firmly
planted in the present. Looking round the bookshop, full of young
people, Juanita said she was reassured that
But I get the feeling that Juanita and the other Madres might be
around for a long time yet, an inspiring example of courage and
determination in the face of heart-breaking adversity.
by Ken Ferguson
The shooting of at least 20 protestors
by West Bengal police has sparked widespread condemnation across
Farmers in the Nandigram area, angered over government plans to
build an industrial park on their land, fought police with rocks,
machetes and pickaxes on Wednesday, said officials.
Clashes
The clashes followed earlier unrest, which in January prompted
the federal government to suspend plans to establish scores of Special
Economic Zones to attract overseas investors with generous tax breaks.
Most of the zones, including the one that was to be set up in Nandigram,
would be built on farmland.
Anger has been intensified by the fact that the deaths are being
exploited by the right-wing BJP as part of their anti-Communist
propaganda, as the state has been run by the Communist Party of
India for 30 years.
It also illustrates the grubby compromises forced on the left in
office by the neo-liberals.
Unreported
This is the largely unreported side of
Beneath the breathless, business-friendly reporting and loving shots
of gleaming skyscrapers lies the brutal dispossession of farmers,
which is now meeting growing resistance, including the resurrection
of a political formation long since written off by the western elites
- Maoism.
If the ‘experts’ bothered to study Mao, they would realise that
the Indian elite faces a sophisticated opponent, not just some unorganised
gunmen.
Across
One report to the Indian parliament stated:
“Twenty six battalions have been given to the states which are affected
by Naxalite (Maoist) movements. Which means 26,000 men and officers,
(which) is equal to an army of a small state.
“We have said that if they need air support, we will give it. Initially
they (Maoists) were using axes and swords. Then they started using
pistols and guns.
“Then they started using AK 47 rifles and now they have started
using hand grenades and landmines. (T)hey are also using rocket
launchers.”
No dialogue
And in an uncanny echo of their former colonial masters,
the central government urged Maoist-affected states not to enter
into dialogue with the CPI (Maoists) unless they give up arms.
Unlike China, India is still a democracy and it is increasingly
clear that while the economic ‘miracle’ is making a minority rich,
millions stand to be crushed by the chariot of neo-liberal ‘progress’
and they seem unlikely to submit without a fight.
—page twelve—
Conditions bleak, outlook poor
Four years on, and
“If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war looks like.”
This was Ayad Allawi, former interim prime minister of
Since then, the situation has only got worse, and how.
As the current prime minister, Nouri
Maliki, desperately tried to make the case that,
four years after the US-led invasion that unleashed a maelstrom of kidnapping
and killing, the sectarian violence was coming to an end, you could all
but hear the eight bombs that went off in the northern state of
A Pentagon progress report to Congress found that the number of attacks
in
In December, there were 1300 murders in
The report stated: “Although most attacks continue to be directed against
coalition forces, civilians suffer the vast majority of casualties.”
The UN says that 3000 people are killed every month in
On the ground, Iraqis negotiate life rather than live it.
Most fear leaving their neighbourhoods, and even their homes, for fear of
being abducted, murdered or worse.
Dead bodies are picked up daily, in rivers, gutters, by the roadside, on
rubbish tips, scarred with the marks of torture, often decapitated.
Drivers have to crawl through checkpoints mounted by insurgents - some of
whom wear police uniforms - knowing they could be pulled out the car and
dragged away, forever.
A BBC/ABC poll of 2000 Iraqis painted a bleak picture of the civilian state
of mind.
Hope is dying.
Less than 40 per cent had anything good to say about their lives now.
While politicians, generally ones sitting in the safety of London and Washington,
bicker about whether what’s happening in Iraq is, strictly speaking, a ‘civil
war’ (perhaps ‘grotesque, bloody, uncivil war’ would be more to their liking?),
the once sovereign nation most certainly fits the description of a ‘failed
state’.
That being one that cannot keep its citizens safe, cannot produce, manufacture,
function economically in any real sense, that cannot maintain its borders
and is riven with internal, warring factions.
Over 4million people have gone, including the educated professionals, the
doctors and nurses and teachers and engineers needed to help
They were one of the main targets for kidnappings and killings, and female
professionals even more so.
Working in a hospital in
The law has imploded too, hijacked either by the ‘state’ - as demonstrated
by the death sentences meted out to three Iraqi women recently (Voice 300),
allegedly for criminal offences but in truth, most probably for political
opposition - or by insurgents, police officers being heavily implicated
in sectarian death squads.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, George W Bush marked the fourth anniversary
of the invasion, and nearly the fourth anniversary of that ‘mission accomplished’
moment, with a trite speech on the need to stay the course.
American security would be at risk if coalition forces now withdrew, he
said, as
Thing is, it wasn’t before.
But post-9/11 policy has bred terror, seeding it in places where before
it could never take root.
Not that Bush will shoulder the blame.
It’s all down to al-Qaeda, you see, that phantom menace that feeds off American
foreign policy, harvesting recruits every time an American gun opens fire
near the Sunni Triangle.
The presence of coalition troops is intensifying the situation in
It is not the case that US troops are all that stands between
Yet a military escalation is already underway, and the cyclical downtick
in violence - it always seems to ebb in the months of January and February
- is being cited as a sign that the surge strategy is working.
For one thing, it’s too soon to say, and for another, the trend is, overall,
ever upward.
There is no ebb.
The
Of course, it is not only the insurgents whose hackles rise at their approach.
They are distrusted, even loathed, by Iraqis everywhere, for invading, for
making life so unimaginably worse that some even wish for the days of Saddam
Hussein, for turning back the clock on women’s rights and basic energy and
security needs, for Abu Ghraib, for stealing Iraq’s
money and now, through a law all but written by multinational executives,
its oil.
Or, to put it another way, pissing down their back and
telling them it’s raining.
One in ten Iraqis are likely to leave in 2007.
They’ll go anywhere, on any terms, so long as it’s out of here.
The writing on the wall
He is expected to plead guilty.
Meanwhile, back home in
And closer to home, in Montrose, a mural by 18 year old Miki Warren appeared
this month, to remind us that, while our lives move on, for those trapped
in the time-warp that is